Putting Plymouth on the active map

Rhys Jones, CEO of Plymouth Active, is on a mission – to establish Plymouth as the UK’s most active coastal city by 2034. Jones spoke to WellNation about how a partnership with EGYM is helping his vision to become a reality

Where does the motivation for making Plymouth one of the most active communities in the country come from? Like many communities in Britain, Plymouth faces inactivity, health inequalities and obesity, all leading to chronic disease and reduced life expectancy for some groups. To create a more prosperous city, we must foster an environment that supports wellness and prevents ill health across the entire population.

Increasing physical activity plays a crucial role in driving positive health outcomes. By building the proper infrastructure and collaborating effectively, we can create a city that caters to everyone’s wellbeing and health needs.

According to the Sport England Active Lives Survey, 18.4 per cent of adults in Plymouth fail to meet the government’s minimum target of 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week. The activity leaderboard is an ever-evolving target. Currently, Plymouth sits eighth on the Physical activity Adult Health and Social Care leaderboard, behind Brighton and Hove in second place.

When I joined Plymouth Active in February 2023, Plymouth City Council had already recognised the potential of its leisure facilities to support public health. Services moved from external management to a LATCO model and I was brought in to optimise the opportunity and drive the city towards its activity target – a challenge I embraced wholeheartedly.

What actions have you taken to drive the change towards getting people more active? We have appointed William Hickey as our Active Health Manager, to develop partnerships with community health and wellbeing providers, creating a whole- system approach to health. Plymouth already benefits from an active social prescribing network and a proactive Active Partnership, so we are leveraging these while strengthening additional links with organisations such as The Wolseley Trust, YMCA Plymouth, Goodboost, Swim England and University Hospitals NHS Trust.

We are also investing in infrastructure. As part of its wider Thrive Plymouth strategy to tackle health issues, Plymouth Active Leisure and Plymouth City Council have joined forces to commit £480,000 to the regeneration of the Plymouth Life Centre. My role is to ensure this investment delivers a return by increasing physical activity levels and improving health outcomes.

Over the past 18 months, I have researched partnership opportunities and explored the latest equipment and technology innovations to develop a solution that supports our ambition. We ultimately decided to work with EGYM to create an environment at the Plymouth Life Centre that serves everyone—from first-time exercisers and those with long-term health conditions to regular gym-goers and competitive athletes. Today, Plymouth LifeCentre offers the most diverse and inclusive physical activity and sports facilities in the city, supported by cutting-edge technology and expert guidance.

The true magic of EGYM lies in the fact it is built on an open platform and integrates seamlessly with external partners to create a truly connected hybrid experience

THE RESULTS

Summary of first three month outputs recorded by EGYM

Membership Net Gain of 693

1292 members onboarded via EGYM

(439 in the first 30 days)

Of the 90 people who completed an eight week, EGYM driven, physical activity intervention at Plymouth Life Centre, 38 are continuing on a paid membership

Collective strength increase of 10.7% (10.6% in the over 59 age group)

Gender split 59% female to 41% male

Collective reduction in BioAge is 5.2 years (7.4 years in the over 50 age group)

Average number of visits per month is 4.3

Tell us more about the environment you are creating at Plymouth Life Centre The centre boasts a 50-metre swimming pool, a sports hall, a climbing wall, squash courts and a large fitness suite. While all facilities play a role, the fitness suite is the engine room of our activity strategy.

Our ‘gym for everyone’ launched in December 2024 and is built on EGYM’s flexible open-platform digital ecosystem. Powered by the AI-driven intelligence of EGYM Genius, it provides members with hyper-personalised training plans that adapt and update to their performance, goals and lifestyles in real-time. EGYM has become the heartbeat of our fitness, health, and wellness provision, supporting our city-wide activity and health ambitions.

On the main gym fl oor, our 8-piece EGYM Smart Strength suite offers a fully automated setup, digital coaching, performance monitoring, and workout progression—ideal for both performance athletes and those new to exercise, managing long-term conditions or recovering from injury.

Complementing this is EGYM’s Fitness Hub, the centrepiece of our ecosystem. Here, members can be easily onboarded to their fitness journey, access personal performance data, track progress, and receive AI-generated workout plans tailored to their needs. The Fitness Hub plays a crucial role in onboarding, benchmarking fl exibility and biometric data, and providing ongoing support to ensure safe and effective training.

The true magic of EGYM lies in the fact it is built on an open platform and integrates seamlessly with external partners to create a truly connected hybrid experience. This creates a fully connected experience. Whether in the gym using Precor equipment, Speedflex, Box 12, InBody body analysis, or outside in the park or at the beach using fitness trackers, EGYM Genius collates data from multiple sources and personalises workout plans for members that help them achieve their goals faster and more sustainably.

Driving a healthier Plymouth by getting more people active, more often.

How are you measuring success?

Data is central to our strategy. We need statistical evidence to demonstrate how our interventions are delivering results. This data will also help us secure future partnerships and funding to expand our impact. EGYM makes this process seamless.

Alongside providing personal performance feedback through BioAge assessments and strength tests via the EGYM Member App and Fitness Hub, EGYM generates collective outcome data.

In just three months, Plymouth Life Centre has completed over 1,200 EGYM onboarding sessions with new and existing members, representing 20 per cent of gym users. We are committed to increasing this percentage in the coming months. Every new gym user is now onboarded into EGYM, enhancing data collection and strengthening our insights.

What impact(s) are you seeing so far? It’s early days, but the results are promising. From December 1, 2024 until the end of February this year, we recorded a net gain in membership of 693, smashing our engagement targets, and reiterating the community’s interest in our regenerated Centre. Our attrition rate has also improved by 1.5% since the new installations and we expect this to increase as more people join the EGYM ecosystem.

In the same timeframe, EGYM users have achieved a 10.7 per cent improvement in strength, with the over 50s demographic logging a 10.6 per cent improvement.

EGYM data also shows a collective reduction in BioAge of 5.2 years, with over-50s achieving an even greater reduction of 7.4 years. Imagine what could be possible after six months or a year!

Furthermore, members using EGYM visit the gym an average of 4.3 times per month. Since visit frequency directly impacts length of stay, knowing and monitoring this statistic allows us to identify those at risk of dropping out and apply interventions that keep them engaged. This benefits not only health outcomes but also our bottom line.

What’s next for you and Plymouth Active? Now we have created a data-driven health and wellbeing hub catering to all community segments, our focus is on continuing to grow engagement. EGYM’s data capture and performance monitoring put us in a strong position to collaborate with community partners in the health, sport and third sectors, delivering measurable activity-driven health pathways alongside servicing our traditional customer base.

Our next priority is expanding our partnership network and welcoming more people into the EGYM Ecosystem, where they receive personalised support to achieve their health and wellbeing goals. Even if members complete most of their activity outside the gym, that’s okay – we encourage people to move in ways they enjoy, whether that’s walking in the park, swimming in the sea or jogging along the coastline.

Every step towards increased activity is a step towards our mission: getting more people, more active, more often, and cementing Plymouth’s place as the UK’s most active coastal city.